A wide variety of communication services are available to consumers today. To simplify a user's access to multiple services, communication systems which provide complimentary communication services are being combined and integrated. This allows a consumer to subscribe to one service provider and buy one device which meets many, if not all, of his or her communication needs.
Communication systems, such as Motorola's "iDEN" system, provide both interconnect and dispatch communication services. The interconnect services are those traditionally provided by cellular systems and include wireless telephone service, voice mail service, and paging or short message service. The dispatch services are those traditionally provided by two-way radio systems and include group call service, private call service, and call alert service.
The dispatch services allow a user to communicate in ways that are difficult or costly using today's cellular systems. The group call service, for example, enables a user to communicate with a group of people simultaneously and instantaneously. Using a cellular system, such a call could not occur instantaneously since either telephone numbers would need to be dialed for a three-way call or arrangements would need to be made to setup a conference call.
Systems which provide both interconnect and dispatch communication services have separate controllers, i.e. interconnect controllers and dispatch controllers. The need to minimize development costs and time-to-market makes such a system architecture desirable. However, in a system with independent controllers, a user of a service supported by one controller may be unable to contact a user involved in a service supported by the other controller. For example, the call alert service, a dispatch service, can alert a dispatch service user of an attempt by the call alert user to communicate; however, the call alert service is not able to alert a user involved in an interconnect service. Thus, a goal of dispatch services, to reach anyone at any time, is not realized.
In addition, a user making a telephone call (i.e., an interconnect service user) to another interconnect service user can be forwarded to voice mail, since the called user is involved in another interconnect communication. However, a user group calling or private calling (i.e., a dispatch service user) an interconnect service user cannot be forwarded to voice mail. Thus, when using dispatch services a user is unable to alert or leave a voice mail message for an interconnect service user.
Therefore, a need exists for an apparatus and method to enable a dispatch service user to alert or leave voice mail for another user concurrently involved in an interconnect communication.